The Albuquerque Journal reports the Sunday arrest of a man at the U. of N.M. Hospital after he chased another man with what is described as a "pocket knife" and, later, as a "butterfly knife" and finally as a "folding knife". I assume this is a balisong, but I don't know--is there another type of folding pocket knife known as a Butterfly knife?

An older story (registration required) from 19 April 2005 always speaks of a butterfly knife being used, this time in a drug-related non-fatal stabbing.

Several recent stories in Albuquerque about knives being used in carjackings, e.g. this story (reg. reqd.) from this month. One case involved a good Samaritan who stopped to help someone, only to be robbed and carjacked at knifepoint. He lost $1000 in golf clubs as part of it.

Another story (from Dec. 2004) involving a knife and a car is here (reg. reqd.):

Arrest Made In Armed Robbery

Casey Jones, 31, of the 1200 block of Third Street NW was arrested Tuesday on charges of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery after he held a knife to the back of a man's head and stole his wallet, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint says:
At about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jones approached a man sitting in his car on Adams NE. The man said he was taking his lunch break in his car.
The man said Jones put a knife to his head and demanded his wallet. The man gave Jones his wallet which had about $80 and several credit cards in it. Jones got into a silver SUV with another man and two women.
A short time after Albuquerque Police Department put out a call to locate the SUV, officers saw Jones running in the area where the vehicle was spotted.
According to police, when officers told Jones to get on the ground, he yelled back that he did not rob anyone and he was running because he was going to get jumped.
Jones said he was with the women because they wanted him to go with them while they "picked up guys for money." However, Jones said he did not know the full names of the other people.
Jones said they used the money to buy crack and the man's credit cards to buy gas for the SUV they were driving.
Jones is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $27,500 cash or surety bond.

Police said there was an argument, and that's when Brown pulled out a 4-inch pocketknife and stabbed Conteno seven times in the upper chest. An employee at the club tried to break things up and was cut on the shoulder while taking the knife away from Brown, who was cut on the hand.

Two South Tucson co-workers fought off an armed robber Monday morning, using their belts to defend themselves, police said.

[...]

Martinez pulled off his belt to try to defend himself and his friend. A brief struggle ensued and the robber stabbed Arteaga under his arm, Muñoz said.

“I guess he didn’t expect them to be fighting back,” Muñoz said, because the robber then ran toward his car, which he had left half a block away.
One of the victims called police from a cell phone and the two men chased after the would-be robber, intending to capture him for police.

At one point, Martinez grabbed the arm that was holding the knife and swung his belt at the robber, trying to force him to drop the knife, but he got away again, Muñoz said.

Martinez fell and the robber came at him with the knife, but Arteaga then took off his belt and used it to defend his friend, he said.

By Krystle Kopacz
Collegian Staff Writer
A Penn State student is in critical condition after he was stabbed in the heart early Friday morning at Club Love, 129 1/2 S. Pugh St.

Doctors at Mount Nittany Medical Center performed open-heart massage on Michael Donahue, 22, of Drums, Pa., for more than an hour early Friday morning. According to court documents, a doctor who performed emergency surgery on Donahue told the State College Police Department “he didn’t know why Donahue was still alive.”

State College Police Sgt. Mark Argiro said he believes doctors are afraid to move Donahue to a special care facility because of his condition.

Police said Josephy Ventura, 27, of East Prospect Avenue, allegedly stabbed Donahue with a 7-inch, wood-handle kitchen knife with a 3-inch blade inside Club Love. Ventura was restrained by bar staff until taken into police custody, according to court documents. He was charged and committed to Centre County Prison in lieu of $3 million bail.

Police said there is no evidence to suspect that Ventura and Donahue knew each other prior to the stabbing.

State College Police Sgt. John Gardner said police are still unsure of the events that led up to the 1:30 a.m. stabbing. Donahue’s roommate, Brandon Lawson, told police he saw Donahue attempt to break up a fight when he was stabbed.

According to court documents, Ventura was upset about an incident in which his girlfriend, a Penn State student, was allegedly assaulted earlier in the night. Police did not indicate that Donahue was linked to the incident.

According to court documents, State College Police Det. Bill Wagner reviewed the surveillance tape from inside the bar and observed Ventura “making a thrusting motion with his hand” toward Donahue’s chest.

When interviewed at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, Ventura told police he didn’t stab anyone. Police searched Ventura’s jacket and found the knife with blood on it, which Ventura told police was his own, according to court documents.

Ventura is charged with criminal attempt – a third degree murder charge – aggravated assault, simple assault, possessing instruments of crime and recklessly endangering another person. His preliminary hearing is slated for Wednesday at the Centre County Courthouse.

Police ask that anyone who may have witnessed the incident or has related information to contact the State College Police Department at 814-234-7150 or Det. Ralph Ralston at 814-278-4742.

------------------------------------------------------------

The victim of a State College stabbing died Sunday evening, two days after he was knifed in the chest.
Michael F. Donahue, a 22-year-old Penn State student from Luzerne County, was stabbed in the heart early Friday at Club Love, 129 1/2 S. Pugh St. He had since been undergoing treatment in Mount Nittany Medical Center's intensive-care unit.
His condition never stabilized.
Donahue's death raises the possibility of more serious charges against the alleged assailant, Josephy A. Ventura.
Centre County District Attornney Michael Madeira said Sunday that homicide charges of some form will likely be filed.
Ventura, 27, of State College, is already facing charges of attempted murder, assault and lesser crimes in connection with the incident. If this becomes a homicide case, it would be the second in the Centre Region since 2002.
Authorities are holding Ventura at the Centre County Correctional Facility in lieu of $3 million bail.
Donahue, who was from Drums in northeastern Pennsylvania, was a junior studying crime, law and justice, according to his personal Web site. On it, he wrote that he wanted to become "some type of law enforcement agent."
Officers handling the case could not be reached for comment Sunday night.
Last week, police said that Donahue and Ventura appeared to have been involved in an altercation with at least one other man. A police investigation is continuing.
They're asking anyone who witnessed the altercation to call them at 234-7150 or 278-4742.

In this article (probably a free preview only by now), the NY Times analyzes New York City homicides for the year 2005. A few interesting facts and quotes:

- The assailant had a criminal record more than 90% of the time; the victim, more than 50% of the time.
- "If the average New Yorker is concerned about being murdered in a random crime the odds of that happening are really remote" a deputy police commissioner said.
- Homicides wherein the victim did not know the attacker beforehand are more frequent at nearly 25%, despite the fact that murders in NYC are down overall. A sociologist said: "It's still characteristically an acquaintance event. But the stranger homicides are now nontrivial."
- Assailants ranged in age from 9 to 88; victims, from infancy to 91.
- The "deadliest hour" was from 1AM to 2AM, and most events took place outdoors.
- Most assailants were men (93%); Caucasians and Asians were disproportionately represented among the victims (much fewer than would be expected if victims were selected at random).
- One 2005 death counted in the statistics was the result of a 1975 shooting.
- Shooting was the most common method (roughly two-thirds).

Atlanta police say a former Marine turned the tables on his attackers - killing one and wounding another with a knife as they tried to rob him.

Detective Danny Stephens says Thomas Autry was walking to his girlfriend's home from his job waiting tables at a restaurant in Midtown Atlanta around 11pm Monday when five people in a car approached him.

Autry began running down the street yelling for help as four people in the car got out and chased him. Stephens says one of the attackers had a shotgun and another had a pistol.

The suspects eventually caught up with Autry. But Autry, who managed to pull a knife out of his backpack, kicked the shotgun out of one of the attacker's hands.

Click to expand...

This is a great self-defense story, but a sad story about America today. One of the attackers whom he was able to use his weapon against was a pregnant teenage girl. She is the one who did not survive.

A postal worker catching the subway to work in Manhattan early yesterday was suddenly and savagely attacked by an emotionally disturbed ex-convict who grabbed two idle power saws on the platform and sliced open his chest, officials and the victim said.

[...]

Before he crossed through the turnstile, Steinberg said he saw a man wielding two buzzing Sawzall power saws - used to tear through wood and concrete - and several workers running scared on the platform.

One police source described Williams' swinging motions as "shadow boxing,"

[...]

Steinberg said that no one around him - including several privately employed electricians who ran away from the attacker - bothered to help.

"I begged for someone to call an ambulance and to get this guy off of me," he said.

Officials said Williams grabbed the battery-powered saws from a table on the platform set up by a subcontractor working at the station.

Before fleeing with the saws, Williams allegedly robbed Steinberg of $200 in cash and credit cards, police said. He dumped the saws in an above-ground trash can, disappearing a block east on Broadway.

Within two hours, Williams struck again, police said, punching a 29-year-old man who was walking his dog at West 86th Street and West End Avenue, police said. That victim called police, who drove around the neighborhood with him until Williams was spotted 10 minutes later, with blood on his white T-shirt, at East 93rd Street and Broadway, police said.

In the Wall Street Journal article I discussed here, there is a story of Nicholas Nobella, 25, who took a four-hour tactical folder course at a Calif. knife shop. Then, several months later, "a melee...broke out" at a bachelorette party that had been joined by the bachelor party, and he used his tactical knife against Edward Pedrosa, a male stripper, killing the man. Mr. Nobella's lawyer has stated that he acted in self-defense.

The Thomas Autry case from Atlanta, mentioned earlier in this thread, is also discussed in the story, where it is noted that he used a 2 inch blade.

A Malaysian princess was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him from attacking her husband, news reports said Tuesday.

[...]The woman's son, Tunku Rizal Shahzan, 21, ran at his 74-year-old father wielding a screwdriver, the reports said. Puteri Kamariah intervened and was stabbed in the ensuing struggle.

The father, Tunku Ismail Tunku Sulaiman, was hospitalized with slash wounds to the stomach

Click to expand...

We often think of a screwdriver as being primarily a stabbing weapon, but in this case the surviving victim was treated for slash, not stab, wounds. Of course, the woman who stabbed suffered a fatal injury.

Man attacks parents with meat cleaver
By HECTOR CASTRO
P-I REPORTER
Without any apparent provocation, a Seattle man suddenly attacked his family with a meat cleaver, leaving his parents with gaping wounds to their arms.
The two were taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment and their son booked into the King County Jail for investigation of domestic violence assault.
The suspect's brother told police the family had just finished dinner and were relaxing in the living room of their Beacon Hill home in the 6800 block of Beacon Avenue South about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when the 21-year-old brother walked in carrying the meat cleaver.
The man's 47-year-old mother asked him why had the knife, but instead of responding, the man swung the meat cleaver at his older brother, cutting him on the neck. The man's mother tried to take the knife away from her son, and was cut in the struggle.
She, her other son, his wife and their infant son ran for a rear bedroom to escape the man with the meat cleaver.
The armed man's father then walked into the house, and he, too, was struck with the meat cleaver. When police arrived, they were met by one of the bleeding victims. More officers arrived and found the son in the kitchen, holding the meat cleaver.
The man ignored orders to drop the knife and was shot and temporarily disabled with a Taser, then taken into custody, police said.
The conditions of those injured were not released and there was no information on a motive for the sudden attack.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the Sunday arrest of a man at the U. of N.M. Hospital after he chased another man with what is described as a "pocket knife" and, later, as a "butterfly knife" and finally as a "folding knife". I assume this is a balisong, but I don't know--is there another type of folding pocket knife known as a Butterfly knife?

An older story (registration required) from 19 April 2005 always speaks of a butterfly knife being used, this time in a drug-related non-fatal stabbing.

Click to expand...

There is the Pilipino balisong but there is also a "parachute" knife used by paratroopers. The handles arc to open and close the knife; I think Smith and Wesson manufacture one.

Donnell once saw a boy badly beaten and left for dead in the schoolyard. After that he started carrying a box knife for protection. One day at school he encountered a gang member who demanded his coat. He resisted but did not take out his knife, and the back of his coat was slashed by the gang member. When the police arrived, the only weapon found was the unused knife in Donnell’s coat pocket. He — not the teenager who started the fight — was sent to juvenile detention.

A naked man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after telling police he had a screwdriver in his buttocks.

The man was lying on a tree stump masturbating beside a nature path near the El Cerrito Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday, police said.

John Sheehan, 33, of Pittsburg was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure. But when asked if he was carrying anything police should know about, Sheehan mentioned the tool, said El Cerrito Detective Cpl. Don Horgan.

``You can't get much more concealed than that,'' Horgan said.
Officers drew their weapons and firefighters were called to the scene, but Sheehan removed a 6-inch metal awl wrapped in black electrical tape without incident.

Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into the county jail in Martinez on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon.

``When you're talking about an awl or an ice pick and you're dealing with somebody who's fresh out of prison, it's a weapon. That's a stabbing instrument,'' Horgan said.

He noted that the rear end is a common hiding place for weapons being smuggled into prison.

A foundry worker angered about someone putting motor oil on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich was stabbed by another employee he accused of the prank - the wrong man, it turned out, police said.

Jeremy Gordon, 22, of Veedersburg was stabbed twice in his lower leg, said Fountain County Sheriff Robert Bass. Gordon thought that the suspect in the stabbing, Bradley McManomy, 27, of Veedersburg, had put the oil on his sandwich, but it was someone else, police said.

"It wasn't even the right guy," Bass said.

Gordon confronted McManomy on Tuesday in a bathroom of the Fountain Foundry Corp., in Veedersburg, 30 miles southwest of Lafayette, Bass said.
McManomy used a knife with a 3- to 4-inch blade to stab Gordon, Bass said.

McManomy was arrested on suspicion of battery with a deadly weapon. He was being held at the Fountain County Jail on $15,000 bond.
Gordon was treated at St. Clare Medical Center in Crawfordsville and released.

Bass said charges might also be filed against Gordon for starting the fight.
"This is an example of how just a practical joke could turn bad," Bass said.

Click to expand...

I have to wonder if it's also an example of a case where if the person hadn't been carrying a knife, no one would have been seriously injured. However, it does say the person stabbed may be charged with starting the fight, so perhaps we'll eventually learn that it was legitimate self-defense.